Seasons

First week of November: our trees and bushes are changing color.  Last week we began noticing the glowing green of leaves losing some of their chlorophyll…sun shining through, and not just on, them. But this morning I walked out into a display of yellow: the ash trees, the bois d’arc trees, the western soapberries…bright buttery yellow leaves replacing the green.  Not *all* of them yet, but definitely enough to notice.  Virginia creeper and poison ivy are turning red.  The  The oaks won’t finish their change for another several weeks, and the darkest red of them peak in December, but they’ve started.  The front yard “big” oak has spots here and there of yellow leaves with green veins.  It ranges from orange to yellow when it’s completely changed.  The narrow red oak now has some orange leaves that will be burgundy at the end.  Some bur oaks put out leaves in bright yellow and even red–in some years, at least–though they usually stick to dull gold or tan before dropping their very large, stiff leaves.   Backyard oaks (all orange to red)  are showing small  puffs of color at the ends of some limbs.  Pecans have brown-spotted deep gold leaves.  We have two maples…a Caddo maple in the front yard now turning a mottled dirty olive/tan that will be a clear yellow, and a big-tooth maple in back that produces small leaves with multiple colors…green, yellow, orange, red all on one leaf.  It’s still green, though.  Crepe myrtles are a yellow-orange at the moment.  Cedar elms look mostly dull but the first “golden coins” are starting to show (and quickly fall.)   They’ve been looking dull for a week at least.

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